IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



duced by hybridizing the flowers of the potato 

 and tomato. Hitherto Mr. Burbank has been un- 

 able to effect this hybridization, although he has 

 many times attempted it. But he is foremost to 

 proclaim that such negative experiments are never 

 final. 



The case of the sunberry produced after 

 twenty-five years of fruitless effort among 

 others taught him that one may succeed at last in 

 hybridizing two species that have refused to unite 

 in thousands of earlier experiments. It is well 

 known that as a rule plants that cannot be hy- 

 bridized cannot be successfully grafted. So the 

 fact that potato and tomato may be grafted is in 

 itself evidence of the probable feasibility of hy- 

 bridizing the two under proper conditions. 



Any amateur may raise a few tomato vines and 

 a few potatoes and the transfer of pollen from 

 one to the other may readily be effected. Should 

 fertilization result, the hybrid combining the 

 strains of the potatb and tomato is sure to be a 

 plant of exceptional interest, and not unlikely it 

 will prove a valuable addition to the list of garden 

 vegetables. At all events, the attempt to effect 

 this hybridization is worth half an hour of your 

 time. 



If you were to succeed where Mr. Burbank has 

 failed, your feat would indeed be worth recording. 

 Even though you fail of your main purpose, the 

 effort will at least afford you an interesting study 

 in the anatomy of flowers. 



[125] 



